Of beetles and angels : a boy's remarkable journey from a refugee camp to Harvard

Read the remarkable true story of a young boy's journey from civil war in east Africa to a refugee camp in Sudan, to a childhood on welfare in an affluent American suburb, and eventually to a full-tuition scholarship at Harvard University.

Following his father's advice to "treat all people-even the most unsightly beetles-as though they were angels sent from heaven," Mawi overcomes the challenges of language barriers, cultural differences, racial prejudice, and financial disadvantage to build a fulfilling, successful life for himself in his new home.

Of Beetles and Angels is at once a harrowing survival story and a compelling examination of the refugee experience. With hundreds of thousands of copies sold since its initial publication, and as a frequent selection as one book/one school/one community reads, this unforgettable memoir continues to touch and inspire readers. This special expanded fifteenth anniversary edition includes a new introduction and afterword from the author, a discussion guide, and more.

Reseñas (3)

Reseña de Publisher's Weekly

In 1983, at age seven, the author and his family arrived in this country, having fled the Eritrean and Ethiopian conflict. "This earnest account of Asgedom's life up to his graduation from Harvard is peppered with powerful moments," wrote PW. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

The self-published memoir of a young man who traveled from Ethiopia as a refugee to the US and eventually to Harvard is now being brought to YA audiences as a widely publicized paperback reprint. Asgedom's story is compelling; after three years in a refugee camp in the Sudan, his family-mother, father, brother, and sisters-made their way to the Chicago area where, thanks to their own faith and grit and the everyday generosity of their community, they managed to establish a life for themselves. The most vivid character to emerge from this rather scattershot collection of memories is the author's father, a medical professional in Ethiopia who became a janitor in the US. In upper-case letters, he enjoins his sons to achieve at all costs or "I WILL MAKE YOU LOST." At other moments, he reflects with great glee on his success in helping fellow refugees work their way around the American legal system. After delivering the commencement address at his graduation from Harvard, the author went on to become a motivational speaker, and, unfortunately, this memoir carries the dual burden of too much motivation and too little editing. The formal prose frequently approaches the histrionic, as in this description of the family's journey from Ethiopia to Sudan: "Even stories fail me as I try to recall the rest of our journey. I know only that the wilderness took its toll, that our young bodies gave way, and that we entered a more barren and deadly internal wilderness." Too, there is more than a hint of self-aggrandizement, as when the author describes his high-school track training: "Fueled by my improvement during the cross-country season, I kept training throughout the brutal Illinois winter. I ran almost 400 outdoor miles . . . The discipline brought results. In track, I ran the anchor leg on our all-state 4 x 800-meter-relay team. We won our conference championship . . . " Still, there is much in this account for the judiciously selective reader to ponder, and it does genuinely represent a significant portion of the contemporary American experience. (Nonfiction. 12+)

Library Journal Review

When Asgedom was four, he and his family fled the civil war cleaving Eritrea and Ethiopia, spending three years in a Sudanese refugee camp. In 1983, assisted by World Relief, the family settled in a Chicago suburb. Their new life wasn't easy: Asgedom's father, once a respected community leader and healer, was barely employed, money was tight, and two family members were killed by drunk drivers. Asgedom had a mischievous streak, once attempting to rob a parking meter of its coins. His father's unwavering guidance, however, kept him working hard-in school and in life-treating all people with equal respect, whether the "lowliest of beetles" or one of "God's angels." Encouraged by school administrators, the author went to Harvard on full scholarship, giving a commencement address in 1999 in which he revealed details of his personal story that few of his classmates knew. That story, a best seller when originally published in 2000, is available here for the first time on audio. Earnestly narrated by Asgedom, with an epilog recorded in June 2016, the spare memoir is ideal for all libraries, especially those with immigrant or refugee communities. VERDICT Asgedom's drive will inspire new audiences, and, more important, his kindness and humanity should prove most resonating of all.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Tabla de contenido

Memories	p. 1
The Camp	p. 5
Coming to America	p. 15
A New Life	p. 21
God's Angels	p. 29
Playground Warfare	p. 33
Days of Mischief	p. 47
Libee Migbar	p. 63
Coffee Tales	p. 75
The Making of a Man	p. 85
The Unmaking of a Man	p. 95
Eyeing the Mountaintop	p. 109
Father Haileab	p. 121
Izgihare Yihabkoom	p. 133
Epilogue	p. 135
Mama Tsege's Legendary Habesha Recipes	p. 146
Reading Group Guide	p. 150

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